Porn films loophole closed

Ministers today rushed through legislation to close a loophole which has meant retailers cannot be prosecuted for selling pornographic and violent films and computer games to children.

A legal blunder by officials 25 years ago means there have been no prosecutions for the sale of 18-rated material to youngsters under the 1984 Video Recordings Act since it was discovered last August, MPs heard.

Creative industries minister Sion Simon said prosecutions for alleged breaches of the Act had been dropped as it was "no longer enforceable".

He said the blunder, which was an "isolated incident", occurred because officials had not notified the European Commission of the Act's provisions in their draft form.

Because of this, the Act would be "repealed and revived" in the Video Recordings Bill to correct the anomaly, which would be rushed through Parliament in one day, he explained.

Opening Second Reading debate he said: "This Bill is designed to repeal and revive the provisions of the Video Recordings Act 1984, including the offences under the Act.

"The offences were made unenforceable because of a failure to notify the offences and other provisions of the Act in draft to the European Commission in accordance with the technical standards directive.

"Until the Video Recordings Act is repealed and revived, no new prosecutions can be made under the Act."

But Tory Philip Davies (Shipley) questioned whether people prosecuted in previous years had grounds to appeal against their conviction.

Mr Simon said: "We have heard of a handful of usually putative appeals or claims for compensation against previous convictions, although all our advice tells us that such speculative attempts to further this loophole are likely to be unsuccessful."